“I want my children to experience sunlight, Eli.”

“What are you saying?”

“If we manage to find a way to escape, we’d have to do it in sunlight. It will buy us time from the Elder’s vampires pursuing us.”

The color drained away from Eli’s face. “You’re serious?”

I nodded. “It would mean us escaping to the human world. We’d have to go to the hunters. It’s our only chance.”

“The sunlight will eventually kill me.”

I shook my head. “You won’t die if you drink my blood first.”

“You’re suggesting that I take the cure?”

“I’m not forcing you to do this, Eli. It’s not a command or anything. I know the consequences of turning human. I saw what it did to my husband, how vulnerable it made him, but…”

Eli nodded as he digested the information. “Very well then. Let’s figure out a way of escape. You’ve been here longer than I have. Do you have an plan in mind?”

I shook my head. “I was hoping you could help with that.” I looked out the window overlooking the gardens. “The only places I’m allowed to go to are this bedroom and the gardens. I doubt the servants I get to interact with will ever have the guts to help us escape. You, on the other hand… Maybe you can volunteer to help the servants grow crops. There must be a loophole we can use to our advantage somewhere in that information.”

Eli stood, clasping his hands behind his back. “There’s not much to hold on to, Sofia. No one has ever been able to escape this place.”

“Except for Derek.”

“How do you know that he was able to escape? How are you so certain?”

“Because if he wasn’t able to escape, then he’s most likely dead, and that’s a reality I won’t be able to live with. He’s alive. That means he is somewhere.”

Eli seemed dubious, but he nodded.

I could see the hesitation and the fear in his eyes, and I had to wonder about how selfish I was bringing him here, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Five months was already way too long and I still didn’t have a plan. I was hoping that they would give Eli a little more leeway than they gave me. “Eli, you are the smartest person I know. You were invaluable in building up The Shade. Prove how invaluable you are to the people here and we might just have a way out.”

Eli smiled. “I know who I am and what I can offer. That’s not what I’m worried about.” He gulped, his eyes on my neck.

I took a short breath. He’s craving my blood.

As if reading my mind, he threw me an explanation as he began pacing the floor. “If I need to turn to a human just to be able to escape… Once I drink your blood, Sofia, I’m not sure I can stop.”

“You can,” I said with a curt nod of determination. “You will, but before we worry our heads over the consequences of you drinking my blood, we have to think of a way to escape first.”

Eli nodded shortly then stopped his pacing before furrowing his brows. “You say that the only places they allow you to go to are this bedroom and the gardens, correct?”

I nodded.

“How do they make sure you stay within these boundaries?”

I pointed Shadow’s way. “Once, I tried to go where I wasn’t supposed to and well, let’s just say that Shadow has already had a taste of my blood.”

“Shadow? That’s his name?”

“That’s what I decided to call him. He doesn’t really answer to the name. He just answers to Kiev snapping his fingers. Kiev calls them beasts.”

“Them? You mean there’s more?”

I nodded. “More than I care to count. All over The Blood Keep, but Shadow here is tasked to guard me. He has my scent and everything. Kiev told me that Shadow would be able to track me down even if I were miles away.”

Eli stared at the beast for a good long while before he gave me a determined nod and said the one thing I desperately wanted to hear.

“I think I know a way out of here.”

Chapter 21: Derek

No matter what I did to convince Ibrahim that there was no way I’d calm down as long as I felt far away from Sofia, he didn’t budge.

“I understand.” He would shrug and shuffle his feet. “But the Ageless has spoken.”

While I understood how easily the power the witches had could be abused, I didn’t understand their blind submission to the Ageless. I didn’t understand how they could just sit on that power when they could be an agent for good.

However, I had to accept that to reason and argue would be futile, so I had to settle for the next best thing: music. Whenever I returned to my quarters, I would go directly to the guitar they’d provided for me and strum the song I’d hummed many times to Sofia. It was a wordless song that was ours, one that helped make memories of her more vivid.

As time went by, it felt like I was losing control more than I was gaining it. I resorted to using wooden utensils, because I’d already seared my lips and tongue more times than I could count with the heat that was coming from my palms.

I would never gain control of the power—not without her. The prophecy still stayed true. We were strongest together and we were weakest apart. I couldn’t believe that I’d doubted it even for a moment.

Music and memories got me through every day, but my patience was wearing thin and my training with Ibrahim was getting nowhere. The warlock having already given up on me, I was summoned to the quarters of the Ageless.

She lived in a palace made of pure white marble and studded with red rubies. I was brought inside and through a series of halls, gardens and brightly-lit rooms. I couldn’t help but contrast the place with the Elder’s castle. The palace was to light as The Blood Keep was to darkness. It felt like hours before Ibrahim and I finally arrived at a courtyard, beautified by a variety of strange-looking flowers and plants. The Ageless was standing in the middle of a sand circle, located at the center of the courtyard. Her eyes were closed and her face was turned toward the heavens, a peaceful look on her beautiful face.

With the sunset serving as her backdrop, she looked nothing short of heavenly.

Ibrahim cleared his throat to get her attention, but whatever she was doing, it seemed she wasn’t going to stop for anything. We just had to wait our turn.

Ibrahim motioned for me to follow him toward a gazebo where we sat to wait for the Ageless to be ready to meet with us.

“So you’ve finally given up on me,” I told Ibrahim, almost in an accusatory tone. “Didn’t I tell you that I wouldn’t be able to control myself? Not without Sofia?”

“I didn’t give up on you. I’m simply taking extreme measures in order to get you ready. Yes. You told me many, many times.”

“And you’ve finally decided to listen? What exactly are these extreme measures, Ibrahim?”

“You’ll find out soon enough. What you should know right now is that we’re running out of time. If you really want to save Sofia, you need to cooperate with us.”

My pace quickened. “Why? What’s happened to her?”

Ibrahim remained silent.

My jaw clenched. “Ibrahim, at some point, you people have to trust me. If this is my mission, then I need to know what I’m up against. You can’t keep me in the dark forever.”

“I know,” he nodded. “That’s why we’re here. We’re going to try to convince the Ageless to trust you.”

My eyes lit up. “Really?” I couldn’t hide the relief from my voice.

“Don’t get excited just yet. Odds are that she isn’t going to agree. Understand, Derek, that your kind—whichever kind you belong to, vampires or humans—haven’t really given us much reason to see you as trustworthy.”

I didn’t respond out of a fear that I would say something I’d eventually regret. I was perhaps being unreasonable, driven by my desire to be with my wife, but I hated how condescending the witches were to other kinds. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to trust them—not when they had remained in their high and lofty sanctuary while the rest of us suffered in our own realms.

“My meditation cannot be interrupted,” the Ageless explained, appearing before us. “While I am sorry that you had to wait, I can’t say that I feel too bad. Do tell me. Why have you come?”

Ibrahim and I looked at her, breathtaken by her beauty. I was about to stand up but Ibrahim motioned for me to wait. I wasn’t pleased that I was once again being left out of the important conversations, but I’d been at The Sanctuary long enough to know that I had no real influence there.

So this is what it feels like to be a pawn, just a piece someone’s pushing around in order to win a game.

The Ageless and Ibrahim took a walk along the stone pathway that lined the courtyard. I watched as they got into a serious discussion about my fate.

It felt like forever before they finished their little stroll and returned to the gazebo.

Ibrahim seemed rather pleased with himself by the way he smiled at me. The Ageless was, as usual, devoid of any expression.

“Your mentor says that it will do you good to know the severity of your mission, how important it is that you do not mess this up. I will allow you to communicate with Corrine.”

My breath hitched.

“Be warned, however, that you’re not going to like it.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. I had no idea what to expect. Dread came over me.

Once I finally got to speak with the witch of The Shade, I realized that nothing could’ve prepared me for the revelations that she unveiled during our conversation.

I didn’t know what effect Ibrahim and the Ageless were expecting the conversation to have on me. Perhaps they thought that finding out about what was happening back home would motivate me to work harder. My conversation with Corrine had the exact opposite effect on me. After finding out what had happened to The Shade, I was more determined than ever to return home.

My people need me. Sofia needs me. I’m turning into hell personified and for the life of me and everyone I love, I need to get the hell out of here.

Chapter 22: Vivienne

Xavier, Cameron and Liana stood around the wooden table inside Sofia’s quarters, now converted to our center of communication. Yuri and Claudia were standing next to each other, leaning on the wall near the table, seemingly preoccupied. Aiden sat comfortably on the couch nearby, legs crossed, listening in on our conversation.

I, on the other hand, was pacing the floor, hands clasped behind my back. I had just told them that I wanted The Shade rebuilt in time for Derek’s arrival.

“Rebuild The Shade.” The words rolled out of Yuri’s mouth as if it was a marvel he couldn’t wrap his mind around.

“We don’t even know where Derek is or if he is…” Cameron held his tongue, casting a guilty look at his wife, who was glaring at him to stop talking.

“Derek is alive,” I said. “His return hinges on a when and not an if. My brother is coming back with his wife and child and when they return, they cannot arrive to this.”

I could feel Xavier’s stare on my skin. He knew me more than anyone else in that room did, even my best friend, Liana, so even if I could get everyone to accept my bold statements, he could see past my bluff.

“You do remember what we had to do just to build the Crimson Fortress alone, don’t you?” Claudia spoke up, her stare fixed on Yuri as she playfully fiddled with strands of his hair.

She seemed back to her old self, flirting and treating everything like they didn’t matter, even though all of us knew how much the island had begun to mean to the feisty blonde vampire.

“Are we really willing to do that again?” she challenged, pouting as she did. “All those lives…”

The hundred-foot tall, thick walls that lined The Shade had been built on the shoulders of human slave labor—mostly hunters, sent by their order to destroy us. They were prisoners of war and we owed the establishment of The Shade to their capture. It had taken almost a hundred years to complete and a lot of human lives—more than we cared to admit. The rest of the establishments on the island—ruined by the recent battles—had taken centuries to complete and develop.

Unless I expected my human brother to return in at least a century, there was no way we could finish rebuilding The Shade in time for his arrival.

I swallowed hard. I wasn’t exactly thrilled over the idea of having to explain our choices to Aiden.

I was relieved when Xavier spoke up. “It doesn’t have to be that way again. We have the technology to…”

“And how are we going to get the kind of technology we need when we are forbidden to leave the island? We have to accept that our ruler will return to a dystopia, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.” Cameron, a carefree and happy person, was more distraught than I’d ever seen him.

Liana gently ran her hand over her husband’s arm. I could tell that she was trying to keep away the tears. We hadn’t spoken much but I knew that the trouble The Shade was experiencing was taking its toll on their marriage.

I looked at all the faces surrounding me. It’s taking its toll on all of us.

“I don’t care what Derek comes back to.” Xavier broke the tense silence. “This is our home. We’ve all known Derek for hundreds of years. We know that he won’t care that The Shade was ruined. It will break his heart, yes, but he will understand. What he won’t understand is if we do nothing to pick ourselves up after all these tragedies.”

“He’s right,” Yuri agreed, his eyes on Claudia, who seemed curious to hear what he had to say. “If we’re going to rebuild, we’re doing it for ourselves, for our own healing. You all know how loyal I am to Derek, but we need to stop doing everything for him and learn to start doing things for ourselves, for our home, for this kingdom. Derek is our ruler, but he isn’t The Shade.”